GUILDERLAND — The old saying goes, "Defense wins championships," and Niskayuna used plenty of it to beat Guilderland in the Section II Class A boys’ lacrosse championship on Thursday.

The Silver Warriors did not give up a goal to the Dutchmen after Sean Davis scored with 10:21 left in the second quarter. Niskayuna went on to win the contest, 8-2.

The Dutch couldn’t get the ball past Nisky’s goalie, Noah Fossner.
"He was making saves all day," said Guilderland Coach Sean McConaghy after the game. "He took the wind out of our sails all day. We took some quality shots, we just couldn’t put the ball away."

Fossner, who will be playing at the University of Delaware next spring, finished the game with 13 saves, some in spectacular fashion.
"At the end, we were trying to get the ball back," McConaghy said. "And, when we did, Noah made a save and then we had to go back on defense."

The Dutchmen played a lot of defense on a hot day on the artificial-turf field at Rennsselear Polytechnic Institute. They also played a lot of defense with one less player as the Dutch were called for eight penalties in the contest. Niskayuna converted on two of the extra-man opportunities.
"We’ve played man down all year," McConaghy said of his team’s propensity for getting penalties. "It’s been a common theme. We get eight to 10 a game and you can’t do that against a better team."

Early leads dissolve

The teams’ play was sloppy in the first quarter of the contest as big-game nerves dominated.

But Davis broke the ice for the Dutch, as he scored with 2:36 left in the first quarter. Davis, a senior, got a pass from Bob McIver from behind the goal and fired a shot past Fossner.

Niskayuna drew even with just 12 seconds left in the opening stanza on Phil Rollins’s unassisted goal.

Davis gave the Dutch the lead early in the second period. No one thought it would be the last goal they would score for the season.

Niskayuna tied the game with 5:41 left in the quarter on a tally from Tyler Connelly. Connelly took advantage of a penalty on Guilderland’s Mike Camardo and scored off a pass from Rollins.

The scored remained deadlocked for the rest of the half.
"At halftime I was happy," McConaghy said. "Our defense was playing great and we had great opportunities we just couldn’t put it away."

Rollins gave Niskayuna the lead for good less than 30 seconds into the third quarter.

Kris Martin scored with an assist from Connelly with 6:12 left in the quarter and Jack Leary scored to give Niskayuna a 5-2 lead at the end of the third quarter.

The Silver Warriors added three goals in the final frame as they possessed the ball for long stretches and forced the Guilderland defense to scramble.
"Their offense moved the ball well and they have some athletic dodgers," McConaghy said. "They made us press out to try and get the ball and we are not good at that."

Robinson finished the game with 14 saves for the Dutchmen.
"They just found the open man," Robinson said of the Niskayuna offense. "They got that first goal and it was just like a ball rolling downhill. Especially with a team like Niskayuna, it’s hard to stop it."

Though Jordan Dubose did a good job keeping the face-off total even for the Dutchmen, Niskayuna won the battle in shots and groundballs. The Silver Warriors took 32 shots to Guilderland’s 17 and won 26 groundballs to 15 for the Dutchmen.
"Great year"
"It was a great year," McConaghy said. "I didn’t think we would be here. Over the summer, we had only two guys make Empires [State Games]. Maybe that was a sign that we weren’t supposed to get this far. I’m happy for the seniors to be here. The 12 seniors accomplished everything they wanted. It would have been great to get out of the section. The seniors are awesome; I’ll miss them."
"We lost a couple of big guys," Robinson of last year’s team that also played in the Section II final. "We had a couple of 100-point scorers on attack and we lost the top face-off man in the section. We pulled together and had a goal of coming back here and we accomplished that."

The Dutch will be losing key seniors like Robinson, who wiil play at the State University of New York College at Oswego next year; Mike Camardo and Bob McIver. Both will be playing Division I schools next spring — Camardo, who was named an All-American, at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and McIver, who is an Academic All-American, at Binghamton University. Also leaving the program are defenders Matt Rimmer, who will be going to SUNY Cortland, and Colin Brunk. Midfielder Stephen Puvogel, attackman Ben Newell, Havard Brustad, Davis, Jeff Armer, Stas Petkevichus, and Kelly Young will also graduate.

Key returners are defensemen Scott Raffensperger and Kip Stillman, Dubose, attackmen Ron Buck and Uriah Myrie, and midfielders Matt Stillman and Chris Conway.
"This definitely hurts a lot more," Robinson said, comparing the two title games he’s played in. "One, because it was a closer game and, two, because I’m a senior."